Dracut native's college project spurred 2024 Olympics study

A preliminary study of whether Boston could or should try hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics has a foundation in the Lowell area.

Former Dracut resident Corey Dinopoulos, who created a hypothetical Olympic bid for Boston as a student project at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, is now a leading member of the Boston Olympic Exploratory Committee, which is studying the feasibility of hosting the Olympics in 11 years. Lowell Sen. Eileen Donoghue has filed legislation to create a state commission that would also study the pros and cons of an Olympics bid.

"It's kind of an interesting Lowell-based story," Donoghue, a Democrat, said of the plan's beginnings.

The exploratory committee met Tuesday night, a day after sitting down with officials at Boston City Hall. The concept is still in its earliest stages, said Dinopoulos, 28, with details like where housing and athletic venues would be located still undetermined.

"We're just in the very beginning stages of looking into it," said the Dracut High School graduate, who also designed the committee's logo, a combination of a clipper ship and a flame.

While Boston hosting the games in 2024 may be unlikely, legislation filed by Donoghue would establish a nine-member commission to study the feasibility of being an Olympics host. The commission would have three members appointed by the governor, two appointed by the Senate president, two by the House speaker, and one each appointed by the minority leaders of the House and Senate.

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The feasibility study would include looking into collaborating with other New England states and should seek input from local government and organizations, especially in larger cities in the area, according to the legislation. It would review all aspects of hosting the games, including infrastructure, lodging, locations for events, and costs and benefits.

A report would be due by Jan. 1, 2014.

Four other legislators co-signed the bill, including state Rep. Colleen Garry, a Dracut Democrat.

A website for the Boston Olympic Exploratory Committee has been established at www.boston-2024.org, but as of Tuesday, the site included only a logo and links to the group's Facebook and Twitter pages, and to the U.S. Olympic team site. The Facebook pages has more than 500 "likes" and the Twitter account, @Boston2024, has more than 270 followers.

The office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino did not respond to a request for comment. Menino told 90.9 FM WBUR that an Olympics bid for the city is unlikely, calling it "far-fetched."

"I'd also be concerned about the cost of it and what it costs to taxpayers of the city of Boston," he told the radio station. "Just to apply, to be considered, costs $6 to $8 million -- not refundable, either. So that's $6 to $8 million that was used of public funds to apply for consideration for the Olympics."

Menino also questioned where Boston would fit the necessary athletic facilities and Olympic village, which would need to have housing for about 17,000 athletes. "I just don't know where we could create that massive land in our city or in the surrounding cities," he said.

A committee's 600-page report in 1994, while Boston was considering going for the 2008 Olympics, gives an indication of what the area could do.

For a main Olympics stadium, with a capacity of around 70,000, it pitched four sites: the Allston, Fort Point Channel and South Bay areas of Boston, and East Cambridge. But development in the years since might make those sites less feasible, especially rapid development around Fort Point Channel.

Other venues would be spread out, including many at Boston-area college facilities. Some basketball games would be held in Springfield and Worcester, for example, and boxing finals in Providence, R.I. The Concord River in Lowell was considered for canoeing or kayaking. An Olympic village would be based around student housing at Boston University, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The committee called a Boston Olympics at the time "very feasible."

The United States Olympic Committee has contacted the mayors of 35 American cities to gauge their interest in hosting either the 2024 Summer or 2026 Winter Olympics, and, according to the exploratory committee, only Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Tulsa, Okla., expressed interest.

The U.S. last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996, in Atlanta, and the Winter Olympics in 2002, in Salt Lake City. New York was a finalist for the 2012 games and Chicago a finalist for 2016, which was awarded to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Bids will be due to the United States Olympic Committee by 2015, according to the website GamesBids.com, which tracks Olympics bidding news. The 2024 host city is scheduled to be chosen by the International Olympic Committee in 2017.

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